Did something just happen?

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It’s been a while, huh? Many excellent people are still here, some come and go, and many more, like me, hover around lurking, mostly checking in to see if it’s still here and how things are.

It’s still here. The main reason I’m posting is to give you guys an update so you know where in the universe Atomic sits and what its future is, because some things just changed.

The big news is that a couple of months ago Atomic’s owner nextmedia sold off its tech and games assets to Future Publishing. Making Future the fourth company to own Atomic. Future is huge, if you didn’t know. I wanted to work there once, in the 1990s when I loved PC Gamer. Well I work here now because with the titles Future bought (PC & Tech Authority, PC PowerPlay, Hyper and Atomic), they also hired David Hawkeye Hollingworth and myself. They also fixed the bloody crypto CPU killing infestation, so off to a good start in the good books with that.

What it all means for Atomic is a big happy nothing. Future will keep the site going and everything will be tops. Now, being a supergiant global media empire, Future is keeping busy with a great many things. It also bought the parent company of Anandtech and Tom’s Hardware earlier this year. That means that this little corner of the internet is a low priority. Probably the lowest. And that’s fine with me. We don’t want meddling, we want to be left alone in peace. One day, perhaps, a time will be right to use the name Atomic and everything it stands for to do some kind of new media tech endeavour. That's not the main reason why these Atomic forums are being kept going though. It's because there are people here that want to stay being here.

There istrue love for Atomic. From you reading this, obviously, or you wouldn’t be here, so thanks for still being part of it Most of all from the guardians of the site Nich, Chaos and Elvenwhore. I know you know how fabulous they are and all their efforts and care are very much known and appreciated by me, David and those that matter here. I can’t thank them enough.

So. As you were. I know there are bits and pieces here and there that need attention, and perhaps we’ll get to that, but the core remains and will continue to do so.

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Good to see you still around, Ben! Or, around again, maybe. you'd scare me if FB bought the place

TBH, if fb had bought the place, I'd be leaving behind dust. I never wanted anything top do with it even before all the evil bubbled into the public spotlight, and now you'd need to pay me well and provide me with a VPN, fake ID, and spoofed DNS.

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TBH, if fb had bought the place, I'd be leaving behind dust. I never wanted anything top do with it even before all the evil bubbled into the public spotlight, and now you'd need to pay me well and provide me with a VPN, fake ID, and spoofed DNS.

Amen Cybes, AMEN!!!

Cheers

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Hi Doctor Nick Ben! Good to see you post again, and nice to hear the news that the forums will continue.

It would be awesome if Atomic found a way to live again as some tech media product it the match is right. But should it stay just the forums, I still appreciate it as something a bit different from other online places.

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All you regulars, sheesh. It's like living in 2002 all over again. But with a lot less stress excitement. Which is pleasantly nice.

Yeah, the poms own us now. But in a way they kinda did in the beginning, it was a pair of poms that started the company that started Atomic. For the last several years we've been owned by the Germans, then before that some different poms. Now new poms. I'd be very surprised if they wanted to do anything big with atomic. Or anything at all. I'd wanna go big. A few times over the years various suggestions were made to do a kinda atomic one-off special - but using content available from the vast pool of global syndication. Hence it wouldn't have been atomic but something like the UK's Custom PC but dressed up as atomic. So obviously we can't have that... who knows what the future holds.